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Revised 2007
VITEX AGNUS CASTUS
The common name
of this herb is Agnus
Castus. It is not a
cactus (it is sometimes mispronounced "Agnus Cactus"), but a member
of the Verbena family.
The name 'Agnus Castus' derives from the Greek for 'chaste'.
According to Pliny, writing in the first century, Greek women
wishing to preserve their chastity placed leaves of this plant on
their beds and slept on them. Pliny's contemporary, Dioscorides,
claimed that Agnus Castus preserved chastity because it smells so
bad that, when strewn on the bed, it was enough to deter amorous
advances from men!
Agnus Castus
was certainly used widely by the
ancient herbalists. Dioscorides even concurs with its current uses;
"it both brings down the milk and expels the menstrua".
Although not a native plant of the UK, records indicate that it was
in use here by 1500. It is then mentioned in Gerard's herbal in the
seventeenth century. Until recent years, though, you would have
difficulty finding much written in UK herb books about Agnus
Castus. It is in the rest of Europe that the herb has had the most
use over the past century.
Only in the last ten years has it become popular again in the UK -
and, now, in America.
USES OF
AGNUS CASTUS
The herb is mainly known as a remedy used by
women. I will concentrate on its effects for PMT and menopause -
its main uses today.
The effect it has on female hormones is largely a balancing effect.
This 'normalising' influence makes it useful in a wide range of
situations. And it can be helpful for a large proportion of the
time - some studies indicate improvements in symptoms for 90% of
sufferers from PMT.
PMT - Agnus Castus
can improve headache, breast
tenderness, fatigue, bloating, anxiety and similar symptoms,
irregular cycle and short or long
cycle.
MENOPAUSE - Symptoms Agnus Castus can improve include: Night
sweats, hot flushes and fatigue.
 Although Agnus Castus
is recommended by several
sources for increasing breast milk - as referred to by
Dioscorides - I have come across little evidence for
this.
(Next: Dosage of Agnus
Castus...)
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